Article appeared Friday, January 10th, 2020 in The News Today, Bangladesh

The Revelation (604) yousuf mahbubul Islam, PhD

In our daily life, we often use man-made products. To get the best and most efficient use
do we use the instruction manuals? Nowadays, instruction manuals are also available as
videos on the Internet. We may even sometimes call/access company officials to get
help. In any of these cases do we ever disbelieve/distrust the guidelines? Do we ever
feel that we should ignore the guidelines and use the product in our own preferred way?
For example, if instructions require an expensive mobile set to be plugged into a 110V
electrical socket, would we prefer to plug it into 220V, e.g., to charge it up quickly? What
might happen if we disregarded the guidelines?

Would the product catch fire? If the product did catch fire, the product would be
destroyed and the entire investment wasted. Similarly, as humans, to carry out our
activities and functions effectively, do we need guidelines – as created beings? Or
should we do as we feel fit – giving priority to random and unsubstantiated thoughts? In
the example of the mobile set, the number 220 is more than 110. One might therefore
feel that using 220V might quickly or more efficiently charge the mobile!

So whatever perceptions we may have in our heart must be verified and the truth
established before going into action. Without working out the truth, we may get into
trouble. So that we do work out the truth every time, God has organized our heart and
brain to work together. To understand this fact, we may look at recent discoveries.
Science has been researching the fact {1, 2} that the heart has 40,000 neurons that
constantly reshape while interacting with the human brain’s 100 billion neurons {3}. This
is how God has created our knowledge processing system. The question is should we
effectively use this gift/blessing to compare our perceptions with knowledge and workout
the truth? If we just use our perceptions to go into action what may be the
consequences?

As only God knows how He has manufactured or rather created His human beings, He
has sent messengers with guidance on how to get the best benefit from the life that He
has put into existence. God has made this guidance available in Holy Scriptures along
with the history of what He did to past people who insisted on simply acting on their
perceptions. An example is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah {4} recorded in the Holy
Scriptures {5} which were utterly destroyed by God for their corrupt and immoral sexual
practices. The following Verses from the Holy Scripture Qur’an briefly relate this story.

27.54 “And (mention the story of) Lot, when he said to his people, "Do you
commit immorality while you are seeing (i.e., you know that it is wrong)?”

27.55 “Would you really approach men in your lusts (sexual desires) rather
than women? Nay, you are a people behaving ignorantly!"”
About the corrupt practices of the people, Alexander Hay comments:
“Yes, the biblical story is about homosexuality and perversion, but it is also about
lawless violence, homosexual gang rape, robbery, and corruption of the law. The
people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not just into kinky gay sex, but they were
greedy, envious, lying thieves who thought nothing of violating visitors and guests
 in the most violent, vile, and dishonest of ways, and then hiding behind their
corrupt legal system to justify it all.” {4}

27.56 “But his people gave no other answer but this: they said, "Drive out
the family of Lot from your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean
and pure!"”

27.57 “But We saved him and his family except his wife: her We destined to
be of those who remained behind.”
How did God destroy the cities?

27.58 “And We rained down on them a shower (of brimstones), and evil was
the shower of those who were warned (but heeded not)!”

27.59 “Say, Praise be to God and peace upon His servants whom He has
chosen (for his Message). Who is better? God or the false gods they
associate with Him?”
Clearly, it is not a problem for God to destroy those whom He created with so many
blessings and intelligence. Who/what is a false god? This story is a warning for those
who do not care to work out who God is and prefer using their own desires over His
Guidance – by giving priority, the desires are turned into false gods. To help workout the
truth and reality of God, He asks who has given the blessings listed in the following
Verses. We need to deeply analyze each.

27.60 “Or who has created the heaven and the earth and who sends you
down rain from the sky? Yes with it We cause to grow well-planted
orchards full of beauty and delight: it is not in your power to cause the
growth of the trees in them. (Can there be another) god besides God? Nay
they are a people who swerve from justice.”

27.61 “Or who has made the earth firm to live in; made rivers in its midst;
set thereon mountains immovable; and made a separating bar between the
two bodies of flowing water? (Can there be another) god besides God? Nay
most of them know not.”

27.62 “Or who listens to the (soul) distressed when it calls on Him and who
relieves its suffering and makes you (mankind) inheritors of the earth?
(Can there be another) god besides God? Little it is that you heed!”

27.63 “Or who guides you through the depths of darkness on land and sea
and who sends the winds as heralds of glad tidings going before His
mercy? (Can there be another) god besides God? High is God above what
they associate with Him!”

27.64 “Or who originates Creation then repeats it and who gives you
sustenance from heaven and earth? (Can there be another) god besides
God? Say, "Bring your arguments if you are telling the truth!"”
27.65 “Say, none in the heavens or on earth except Allah knows what is
hidden: nor can they perceive when they shall be raised up (for
Judgment).”

27.66 “Still less can their knowledge comprehend the Hereafter: nay they
are in doubt and uncertainty about it; nay they are blind concerning it!”
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{Notes}:
{1} http://noeticsi.com/thinking-from-the-heart-heart-brain-science/
{2} http://heartmastery.com/about-us/heart-facts
{3} https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brain1.htm
{4} https://medium.com/@alexanderjhay/the-lesson-of-lots-wife-f4dc59d2dd7a
{5} https://al-injil.net/2012/06/10/taurat-quran-to-injil-lesson-4-the-sign-of-lut/